New Alice in Chains Song Inspired by David Bowie

Jerry Cantrell said that David Bowie had been a leading inspiration for the new Alice in Chains song “The One You Know." The guitarist also noted that it was in some ways representative of the rest of the band's upcoming sixth studio album.

“It’s really aggressive – it’s got a super-aggro riff,” Cantrell told SiriusXM in a new interview. “I was thinking kind of Bowie when I was writing, a little bit, so it’s got a metal ‘Fame’ shuffle to to it, almost. It’s a good aggro riff and it’s got the classic Alice in Chains chorus, with a weird kind of trippy middle part.”

You can watch the interview below.

Cantrell said the follow-up to 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is "a good record. I wouldn’t say that the rest of he record sounds like [“The One You Know”], but that’s a good indicator of what the record kind of feels like. There’s a lot of edgy stuff there, a lot of rocking stuff, a lot of weird stuff, and some pretty stuff in there too.”

He also acknowledged the five-year gap between releases. “We’ve been really fortunate in most of our career to be able to make music when we feel like it, rather than having to be on somebody else’s schedule, which is really nice," he said. "So we take advantage of that. There’s no reason to put music out unless it’s something we feels strongly about and stand behind.”

No release details have been revealed on the album yet. Alice in Chains complete their current U.S. tour on May 19 before traveling to Europe and then returning to North America for more shows in August and September.